Meet Mr. Prince by Patricia Kay Page B

about steering clear of Zach after tonight and ended up making a fool of herself, at least no one else would ever know.
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    â€œAnd this,” Zach said, “is Jeremy.”
    Georgie smiled at the dark-haired youngster standingbefore her. Bright blue eyes the exact shade of his father’s stared back at her. In fact, Jeremy Prince was a miniature Zach. He would be a heartbreaker when he grew up. “Hi, Jeremy.”
    â€œHi.”
    â€œYour dad tells me you’re quite a hockey player.”
    Jeremy grinned, showing a missing tooth. “I scored two goals in my last game.”
    â€œThat’s great.” Georgie smiled ruefully. “I don’t even know how to skate.”
    â€œYou don’t?”
    Georgie shook her head. “Nope. Where I live, we don’t get snow and ice very often.”
    â€œYou don’t? ” Now he seemed aghast. “Why not?”
    â€œIt’s not cold enough. Instead we get a lot of rain in the winter.”
    â€œI don’t like rain.”
    Georgie laughed. “As a kid, I didn’t, either.”
    â€œYou should come skating with us sometime,” Jeremy said. “We go ’most every Sunday, don’t we, Dad?”
    Throughout this exchange Katie hadn’t said a word.
    Zach turned to his daughter. “What do you think, Katie? Think we could teach Miss Fairchild how to skate?”
    Katie shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    Georgie noticed that she didn’t look at her father.
    â€œI bet I could teach you to skate,” Jeremy said proudly. “I’m the best skater in our family.”
    â€œI’m just as good as you are,” Katie said, glaring at her brother.
    â€œSo do you wanna?” Jeremy said to Georgie. He ignored his sister. “It’s a lotta fun.”
    Georgie was trying to think how to answer thatwouldn’t embarrass Zach or put him on the spot when he said, “You’re welcome to join us anytime, Georgie.”
    â€œThank you. Maybe one of these days I’ll take you up on the invitation.” But she knew she wouldn’t. She could feel the hostility coming off Katie. She doesn’t like me. The thought made Georgie feel bad. She would have liked to be friends with Katie, because she thought she understood how the child felt. After all, they had something important in common. Georgie had been barely two years older than Katie when she’d lost her father.
    â€œNow that we’ve settled that,” Zach said, “it’s time for you two to get ready for bed.”
    Georgie was impressed that neither Katie nor Jeremy argued or tried to wheedle their father into changing his mind. Instead, with a polite good-night from Katie and a big grin from Jeremy, they gave Zach a kiss and headed for their respective bedrooms.
    â€œThey’re nice kids,” she said to Zach once they were gone.
    â€œThey are.”
    â€œI’m sorry I didn’t get to meet Emma, though.”
    Later, during dinner, Georgie thought about how different his life was from hers. The strange thing was, though, that she felt more than a twinge of envy. Distracted and more than a little unsettled by this discovery, she had a hard time pretending to have a good time during dinner.
    â€œIs something wrong?” he asked when she picked at her dessert, a really luscious apple tart.
    She quickly shook her head. “Oh, no, everything was wonderful. Fanny’s a marvelous cook. I’m just too full…and a bit tired.”
    He smiled. “A new job, a new city, new hours… I’m not surprised.”
    She nodded. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to head on home now. Thank you again for inviting me.”
    â€œMy pleasure.”
    Zach walked her out to the foyer, where she retrieved her coat, scarf and gloves from the coat closet. As she buttoned her coat, he said, “You know, I was worried when Alex told me you were coming to work at the